Investors hardly responded to recent events

Wall Street has reacted cautiously to the US Republican tax plans. In addition, they assessed the nomination of Jerome Powell as successor to Janet Yellen as the Federal Reserve. The 30-benchmark Dow Jones edged up 0.35 percent on Thursday to 23,516 points, while the broader S & P 500 closed in on 2579 points. The NASDAQ also hardly moved with 6714 points.

Republicans’ tax plans largely failed as expected. The company tax will fall from 35 percent to 20 percent. In addition, there should be fewer tax rates for private individuals. President Donald Trump’s plans have contributed to the rally on Wall Street since his election a year ago. However, there are doubts as to whether Congress will succeed in the first major tax reform since 1986. “I do not know if Washington really has enough substance to meet market expectations,” said Longbow Asset Management CEO Jake Dollarhide.

Attentively, investors also followed Trump’s announcement that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell would be the successor to central bank chief Janet Yellen . Any other step would have been a big surprise. Powell largely supports Yellen’s monetary policy, but is considered more market-friendly.

The share of Time-Warner dropped 3.8 percent after reports that the US justice wants to keep AT & T’s acquisition. AT & T lost 1.1 percent.

Tesla came with disappointing figures and caused problems with the Model 3 production. The share lost almost 7 percent. Facebook had more users, higher sales and higher profits. The social network warned that investment in security and the fight against abuse will affect profitability. The share lost 2 percent.

Kraft Heinz reported higher sales and profits and rose 0.4 percent. KFC owner Yum Brands (up 6.5 percent) reported a much stronger comparable growth than analysts had expected. Funko’s trade deficit was dramatic. The company, which includes toys and collectibles, went far less than expected to the stock market and reduced the number of shares to be placed. Funko dropped more than 40 percent.

I handle much of news coverage for tech stocks, and occasionally cover companies in different sectors. In the past, I've written for other financial sites and published independent investment research, primarily on tech companies. I have a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University. I'm based out of San Diego, but grew up in Southern New Jersey. I play basketball and tennis in my spare time, am a long-time (and long-suffering) fan of Philadelphia's sports teams, and alternate daily between using an iPad Air, a Galaxy Note 3, and one or two Windows PCs.